We live in your world - February 2011

We have facilitated a visit by the Uniting Church in Victoria and Tasmania to a hydroelectric project in the Mekong region in Laos after representatives of the organisation approached ANZ concerned about social and environmental aspects of the project.

Supported by our customer, a senior official of the organisation undertook a three-day visit to the hydroelectric project in Laos.

Prior to the visit, we worked with our customer and the organisation to identify social and environmental issues of concern to the organisation.

ANZ has specific policy settings to guide our involvement in sensitive sectors such as energy, mining and defence. In addition, we also work closely with our customers and stakeholders to better understand issues of concern and facilitate dialogue.

With our support, our customer provided the stakeholder organisation with the opportunity to see first-hand how issues of concern are being managed and how our customer is working with local people and seeking to make a positive contribution to the economic and social development of impacted communities.

Importantly, our engagement has also opened an ongoing discussion between the customer and the stakeholder to help ensure issues are brought to our customer's attention in a timely way.